Challenges in educating a patient with severe anxiety and depression

Geraldine A. Lee, Mary S. Boyde

Abstract

This case report aims to outline the psychological effect an arrhythmia can have on a patient and their spouse and how anxiety has a profoundly negative effect on how a patient learns. This case report also highlights the difficulties nurses perceive in attempting to educate and engage the patient and spouse, and the problems in balancing nursing care between technology (in this case the need for constant cardiac monitoring) and more focused on patient concerns (fear of dying and defibrillator discharging). As nursing care incorporates the use of more advanced technology, it is important to ensure care remains patient-focused not technology-focused. The impact of anxiety on cognition and patient learning cannot be underestimated.